First Openly Gay Army Secretary Nominee Stalled by Single Senator

It's been eight months since President Barack Obama nominated Eric Fanning to become secretary of the Army — the first openly gay man to be recommended to that branch's highest ranking civilian position.

Since then, he's no closer than he was months ago to a confirmation. Sen. Pat Roberts, R-Kansas, is holding up Fanning's confirmation because the lawmaker wants Obama to promise not to move Guantanamo Bay detainees to the Fort Leavenworth, Kansas military installation.

White House officials suggested Roberts is grandstanding.

"It is hard to imagine that Senator Roberts takes this particularly seriously," White House press secretary Josh Earnest told reporters in a press briefing last month. "You may recall the last time that anybody has talked about Senator Roberts was when he filmed a video of himself crumbling up the president's plan to close the prison at Guantanamo Bay and throwing it in a wastebasket. So maybe he relishes the opportunity to be before the camera, but it's not apparent that he takes this critically important national security issue all that seriously."

Odd, though, that there have been lots of other Obama appointments this Sen. Roberts could have blocked to also make his point about not closing Guantanamo, including nominees for the Defense Department. But he picks the one gay guy. Uh-huh...

On a tangent, but I knew plenty of tough Army guys who hated getting shots. I knew some who virtually fainted at getting stuck, and at seeing blood. I've told the story here before of how I had to practically threaten courts martial on my own staff, each year when it came time for our mandatory annual flu shots. And of the humiliating technique I used on them to make it happen.

Just one example: I organized a college campus blood drive when I taught Army ROTC, with a local blood bank. I and another Major both donated.

But just as he advised the blood bank staff, as soon as they stuck him he fainted. But he'd told them to keep taking his blood, that was a normal reaction for him, and they did.

I was obviously surprised he fainted at that little thing, but also impressed that he still volunteered for the draw, and gave his liter. For myself, I just don't like to see the needle going in, so I turn away. But once it's in I look, and the sight of blood doesn't upset me, including my own. I've had too many bloody injuries, and attended them with others, for that.

Fainting can be caused by the vagus nerve system jolting into action at being stuck by a needle or at the sight of their blood, trying to minimize the path of blood to the brain by getting the body prone in anticipation of a major blood loss from the breach of the body. Unfortunately, this mechanism is much more sensitive in some people than others, even those who have no intellectual or emotion qualms about donating blood, which can cause light-headedness to fainting from so little as a finger prick blood test!

Sulla saidFainting can be caused by the vagus nerve system jolting into action at being stuck by a needle or at the sight of their blood, trying to minimize the path of blood to the brain by getting the body prone in anticipation of a major blood loss from the breach of the body. Unfortunately, this mechanism is much more sensitive in some people than others, even those who have no intellectual or emotion qualms about donating blood, which can cause light-headedness to fainting from so little as a finger prick blood test!

+1

Once more, knowledge on this site (of the vagus nerve function) as opposed to the anecdotal bullshit above it.... Well done.

Sulla saidFainting can be caused by the vagus nerve system jolting into action at being stuck by a needle or at the sight of their blood, trying to minimize the path of blood to the brain by getting the body prone in anticipation of a major blood loss from the breach of the body. Unfortunately, this mechanism is much more sensitive in some people than others, even those who have no intellectual or emotion qualms about donating blood, which can cause light-headedness to fainting from so little as a finger prick blood test!

+1

Once more, knowledge on this site (of the vagus nerve function) as opposed to the anecdotal bullshit above it.... Well done.

Comments which I believe were at least in part prompted by my real-world anecdotal experiences with what we saw in the photo of an alleged US Army soldier. A picture of a guy wincing, not fainting.

But I do like to share my anecdotal experiences in life. At least I have some.

Sulla saidFainting can be caused by the vagus nerve system jolting into action at being stuck by a needle or at the sight of their blood, trying to minimize the path of blood to the brain by getting the body prone in anticipation of a major blood loss from the breach of the body. Unfortunately, this mechanism is much more sensitive in some people than others, even those who have no intellectual or emotion qualms about donating blood, which can cause light-headedness to fainting from so little as a finger prick blood test!

That might well have been the case with my fellow Major I referenced above. Because he was otherwise a tough-as-nails guy. And as I said, perhaps a good demonstration of that toughness was his volunteering to donate blood, even though he knew he always fainted from it. Thanks for that new bit of information.